united community corporation

Report of the City Council Committee’s investigation of the United Community Corporation in 1965. The Committee charged that the UCC misappropriated funds and utilized federal money to fund and organize political campaigns. The Committee concluded that the City of Newark “should immediately undertake its own Anti-Poverty Programs and…that it should not combine with or participate in or contribute to any provate groups or non-profit agencies.” Community members like George Richardson and Hilda Hidalgo, however, argued that the Committee’s investigation was an attempt to “bring the anti-poverty program under the control of the Mayor and the City Council.” — Credit: Newark Public Library

Letter from United Community Corporation (UCC) members George Richardson and Hilda Hidalgo, to Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., seeking assistance in response to the City Council Committee’s investigation of the UCC in 1965. Many Black and Puerto Rican ommunity members, like Richardson and Hidalgo, argued that the Committee’s investigation was an attempt to “bring the anti-poverty program under the control of the Mayor and the City Council.” — Credit: Newark Public Library

Telegram from Bessie Smith, President of the People’s Action Group (Area Board #3) of the United Community Corporation (UCC), to Sargent Shriver, Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity on October 28, 1965. Mrs. Smith sent the telegram to request Shriver’s assistance in response to the City Council Committee’s investigation of the UCC. Mrs. Smith and many others felt that the investigation was an attempt to bring the antipoverty agency under the control of the Mayor and the City Council. — Credit: Junius Williams Papers

A printed collection of statements presented by members of the Newark Community Union Project (NCUP) to Adam Clayton Powell’s Congressional Committee investigating the War on Poverty in April, 1965. In their statements, these Newark residents describe a lack of community representation and involvement in the United Community Corporation (UCC) in Newark. As federal funding arrived in Newark, city officials and politicians jockeyed for control of the money for their own purposes, while the city’s poor communities sought access to the antipoverty programs. Mrs. Louise Patterson explains that “the Area Boards are being taken over by Ward Leaders and speeches by politicians and candidates for political office.” — Credit: Newark Public Library

Report written by Rennie Davis, director of the Students for a Democractic Society’s (SDS) Economic Research and Action Project (ERAP), offering a critique on the War on Poverty and strategies for “insurgent response.” SDS was one of many organizations that advocated community control of War on Poverty funding “to change the ghetto and the outside country.” — Credit: Junius Williams Papers

Flyer distributed to warn against City Hall control of the United Community Corporation and encourage community members to vote for representatives from their neighborhood to the UCC Board of Trustees. City officials in Newark feared that the antipoverty program would undermine their political power in the city and moved to exert control over the antipoverty agency. — Credit: Newark Public Library

The office of the People’s Action Group at 471 Clinton Avenue in Newark. The People’s Action Group was the name of Area Board #3 of the United Community Corporation (UCC). — Credit: Newark Public Library